Pulled, Poked, and Twisted

El Fuego vs  Chad Daniels, Match 708 (UCW)

In a matter of seconds, El Fuego puts Chad Daniels in a "sticky spot," a horizontal rear naked choke hold, his hairy legs stretching Chad's long, smooth legs wide. He holds the blond paralyzed, exhibiting the guy's torso to the camera and to us fans at home. He releases, and the two men stand and square off. "Free shot," Fuego declares, slapping his chest with his palms.  Daniels scoops him up by the neck and crotch and slams him down on an extended knee. Fuego thrusts loose, snagging Chad into a right armbar, held tenaciously for 50 seconds while yanking the newcomer's shaggy blond hair (1st and 2nd GIFs).

Fuego shifts to a figure-four headlock and punches Chad's unguarded belly. Chad rolls loose but fails at multiple attempts to get a firm grip on the masked man. He finds himself in a standing full nelson and then forced to his knees. Frustrated because Daniels won't submit or sell (or both), Fuego exclaims, "You're stubborn as fuck," and tosses him aside. Chad pants, struggling to keep his balance as he rises to his feet. "Not living up to the hype, are you?" Fuego taunts. This is beginning to look like a shoot match, or at least tending in that direction, and my dick is getting curious about where all this leading.

El Fuego pushes his luck, stretching out his arms and inviting an attack. Chad folds him in half with a punch to the navel, then stomps him face-down to the mat. He scissors his legs across the masked man's upper chest, his knees nudging the chin. Fuego muscles out almost too easily and cradles his opponent. For a few tense seconds, his fist is clenched, hovering over Chad's smooth pale stomach, tempted to punch perhaps, but instead he opts for a three-count. Chad bucks free after a count of only two.

Chad pushes Fuego's back to the mat and kneels between his thighs, throwing two-handed punches to the man's taut midsection. "How d'you like that?" he asks rhetorically. He repeats the question when he gets Fuego in a chinlock. Fuego shoots both middle fingers into the air and groans, "Fuck you!" Chad puts his long arms and legs to good use, stretching the smaller wrestler's limbs. If he was expecting El Fuego to lie there and take it, he was mistaken. Fuego grips Chad's knee between his thighs and makes what looks like a genuine effort to bust the kneecap.

For the next seven minutes El Fuego takes out a lease on Daniels's body, pulling, poking, and twisting it in every possible direction. This is where, for me, the match catches fire. These are the punishments that won me as a Fuego fan in the summer of 2018. For the last half of the 25-minute battle, a flurry of  give and take leads to a win by submission, but for me, the seven minutes of Fuego cutting the new kid down to size is worth  the price of a download.

Visit UCW here.